Meilisearch Tasks Stuck on Enqueued

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Find the blocking task

   Copy steps
   1. Call GET /tasks?statuses=processing to see what is running
   2. Check its type and details; a settings update on a big index can take a long time
   3. Wait for it to finish; it does not need to be re-sent
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Cancel tasks you don't need

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   1. Call POST /tasks/cancel with a filter such as ?statuses=enqueued or ?uids=1,2 (a request without a filter fails with missing_task_filters)
   2. Only enqueued and processing tasks can be canceled
   3. Check the cancelation task with GET /tasks/{uid}
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Free the queue

   Copy steps
   1. Delete finished tasks with DELETE /tasks?statuses=succeeded,failed,canceled
   2. If you hit no_space_left_on_device, free disk space and delete finished tasks, then retry
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

GET /tasks shows tasks with status enqueued for a long time; new documents or settings changes don't appear.

Why it happens

• An earlier task (large document batch or settings change that triggers a full reindex) is still processing
• Tasks execute strictly in order, one at a time
• The instance was restarted: processing tasks go back to enqueued and resume
• The task queue is full (about 10 GiB) and writes are blocked

This guide also covers

• meilisearch tasks stuck enqueued
• meilisearch task processing forever
• meilisearch cancel task

Other Meilisearch errors

• Meilisearch Indexing Slow
• Meilisearch Documents Not Showing Up
• Meilisearch Primary Key Error
• Meilisearch Filter Not Working (Attribute Not Filterable)
• Meilisearch Invalid API Key / Missing Authorization Header
• Meilisearch Database Version Incompatible After Upgrade
• Meilisearch Disk Usage Keeps Growing / No Space Left on Device
• Meilisearch High Memory Usage